Selling a lawn care business

I have had a landscape maintenace company now for almost 9 years. I am 29 and am thinking about selling the company and heading back to finish college and do something else. Was wondering if any of you have ever sold or bought a landscaping company and how much do you think I can get for mine. I currently have approx. 80 residential accounts and 16 commercial accounts. 2 trucks, 2 trailers, 3 commercial zero turns, 5 trimmers, 4 back pack blowers, 2 hedge trimmers, a billy goat 20hp parking lot blower. All equipment is stihl, 2 back pack blowers are almost new and they are the magnum 600. Not to mention all the misc tillers, bed edger, rakes, shovels, wheel barrows, etc. Business gross income is approx. 14k during the growing season(March-October) and 5K during the offseason(November-February). That is just strictly maintenace and does not include any extras I do including pine straw, mulch, tree trimming, planting, etc. Any help is appreciated. All commercial accounts are contracts, most of the residential are not, (but I could probably get most of them to sign if I needed to). Also comes with 2 employees who know the customers, the jobs, and how to run the equipment. Any help is appreciated!! Thank you

I have had a landscape maintenace company now for almost 9 years. I am 29 and am thinking about selling the company and heading back to finish college and do something else. Was wondering if any of you have ever sold or bought a landscaping company and how much do you think I can get for mine. I currently have approx. 80 residential accounts and 16 commercial accounts. 2 trucks, 2 trailers, 3 commercial zero turns, 5 trimmers, 4 back pack blowers, 2 hedge trimmers, a billy goat 20hp parking lot blower. All equipment is stihl, 2 back pack blowers are almost new and they are the magnum 600. Not to mention all the misc tillers, bed edger, rakes, shovels, wheel barrows, etc. Business gross income is approx. 14k during the growing season(March-October) and 5K during the offseason(November-February). That is just strictly maintenace and does not include any extras I do including pine straw, mulch, tree trimming, planting, etc. Any help is appreciated. All commercial accounts are contracts, most of the residential are not, (but I could probably get most of them to sign if I needed to). Also comes with 2 employees who know the customers, the jobs, and how to run the equipment. Any help is appreciated!! Thank you

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The company I was with before grossed about the same (14k during the season, around 8k over the winter). The owner and I were good friends. He wanted out and was willing to sale the company to me and let me pay it off over 5 years. He was still gonna be involved and get 8% commission on any new contracts he brought in. The final amount was gonna be $90,000.

There were some debt issues plus I already owned one of our truck, trailers, and mowers. Long story short the deal never went through and we split up. Thank god I never signed the papers because I found out about a month later he was asking employees to pawn equipment to get their paycheck. Obviously there were more money issues that I didn't even know about.

He wound up selling but I have no idea how much.Posted via Mobile Device

I think one could expect a months wages not under contract. Contract accounts more in the 1.5 month range. You would know the equipment values more than us and could come up with a number for its value.

Those are my thoughts for what it is worth. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Have you thought about offering one of your employees the option to buy you out? They may not have the cash to do it all at once, but with mutually beneficial terms your business is probably going to be worth more to someone who is already working in it than it would be to someone just looking to add accounts to their business.